Friday, February 21, 2014

Indian Expats in Bangladesh

A couple of years ago,
during my visit to Bangladesh I got a glimpse of globalization inside
Bangladesh when I met some Indian Engineers who were working for a reputable home
building company. A friend of mine later introduced me to some Indian engineers
working for Bangladeshi ship-builders in Chittagong. Over the years I have also
come across many Indians who were working for the international companies and
NGOs. I did not know how many Indians were gainfully employed inside Bangladesh
though.

If you have traveled
outside your home country you must have noticed that in much of our world the
workforce includes foreigners that are not part of the native community. And
this is true for almost all countries except God-forsaken countries like
Myanmar (former Burma that has epitomized the apartheid character) and North
Korea. In some parts of the world, e.g., the rich Arab Gulf states, the foreign
workers comprise the majority of the entire population. Such a global trend
should not surprise us any more knowing that our world is becoming more
connected and globalized than ever before in its entire history. And people are
doing what their ancestors had done since the days of Adam and Eve – they are
on the move for a plethora of reasons.

Nearly one billion
people – that is, one out of every seven persons on the planet – have migrated
internally and across international borders in search of better opportunities
and living conditions, with profound implications for development, growth and poverty
alleviation in both origin and destination countries. The more prosperous western
countries, especially the USA and Canada, have been able to gravitate the best
brains providing them opportunities in research and development that are absent
in many developing and underdeveloped countries. Much of the innovations have
come out of these immigrants energizing the economy in their adopted countries.

According to the United
Nations, more than 230 million people are living outside their countries of
birth in 2013. It is no surprise either that the expatriates are funneling
billions of dollars into the countries that they came from.

According to World Bank's
Migration and Remittances Brief, officially
recorded remittances to developing countries are estimated at $414 billion in
2013, an increase of 6.3% over the previous year. Global remittance flows,
including those to high-income countries, are expected to be $550 billion in
2013. The top recipients of officially recorded remittances are India ($71
billion), China ($60 billion), the Philippines ($26 billion), Mexico ($22
billion), Nigeria
($21 billion), and Egypt ($20 billion). Other large recipients include
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Ukraine.
However, as a share of GDP, remittances were larger in smaller and lower income
countries; top recipients relative to GDP were Tajikistan (48%), Kyrgyz
Republic (31%), Nepal (25%), Lesotho (25%) and Moldova (24%).

Despite the current
global economic weakness, remittance flows are expected to continue growing,
with global remittances expected to reach $594 billion by 2014, of which $449
billion will flow to developing countries. The remittance to developing countries is
projected to rise to $540 billion by 2016. It also noted that globally, migrants pay
an average cost of 9% to send money home. Reducing the average remittance price
to 5 percent, in line with G8 and G20 targets, could save migrants around $16
billion a year.

In recent
years, India has been the largest recipient of remittances in the world.
According to the World Bank, India received $69 billion in 2012. What may
surprise most Bangladeshis is the little known fact that Bangladesh ranks fifth
(behind the UAE, the USA, Saudi Arabia and the UK) among the top 15 countries
from which India draws remittance from her expatriates (see the list below for
top 8 countries).

1.UAE:
There are millions of Indians staying in UAE and majority of them lives in
cities like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. It is reported that most number of
Indians are willing to go to UAE because of the different opportunities that
are offered in the field of petroleum, construction and other industries. India
received about $14.255 billion as remittance from United Arab Emirates.

2.USA:
Indian expats who are working or settled in USA remit a whopping $10.844 billion
to India.

3.Saudi
Arabia: More than a million Indians work in the kingdom. Report shows that
people who work in Saudi Arabia send $7.621 billion to their home as a
remittance.

4.UK:
Indian expats who stay in U.K send $3.904 billion to their home yearly.

5.Bangladesh:
It is reported that there are Indians who are staying in Bangladesh and there
are about 500,000 Indians presently residing. These Indians remit $3.716 billion
to their home country and the number is expected to increase in next few years.

6.Canada:
Indian expats who are staying in Canada send home as much as $3.145 billion.

7.Nepal:
Indian expats who stay in Nepal remit $ 2.934 billion to their home country,
India.

8.Oman:
Report shows that Indian expats who stay in Oman remit $2.373 billion to India.

The Silicon India News reported
that the Indians “who are migrating to Bangladesh illegally are from West
Bengal, Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura and Mizoram. According to the government
authorities of the country, most of them come in search of job opportunities
and mostly work in NGOs, garments and textile industries. These Indians remit $3,716
million to their home country and the number is expected to increase in
next few years." (15 Nations Sending Highest Remittances to India,
21 May, 2013) That is, approx. $4 billion is remitted by these half a
million illegal Indians working inside Bangladesh. Not a bad number: more
than 5% of total Indian remittance coming from ‘poor’ Bangladesh!

Since my childhood I
have also known of many Bangladeshi Hindus whose loyalty was to India, and they
have been money laundering their wealth and hard-earned income to the family
members in West Bengal, Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam. However, until the
publication of the World Bank brief on remittance I had no clue that billions
of dollars are being remitted to India from Bangladesh.

Oddly, for years, Indian
politicians have used the Bangladesh-card to paint a very slanted and damning portrait
about the country stating that the ‘poor Bangladeshis’ are illegally crossing
into India, taking up jobs, settling in India, etc., as if the poor
Bangladeshis can’t find any job inside Bangladesh. That mythical characterization
appeared too absurd to me knowing that pay-scale for most jobs inside
Bangladesh is higher than offered in nearby states of India, let alone the fact
that people simply don’t like to migrate to an unfriendly environment, which
does not even pay well.

But little did we know
about the humongous Indian influx into Bangladesh. The killing of innocent
Bangladeshis along the border by the trigger-happy Indian Border Security
Forces in the Bangladeshi soil and no-man’s-land is even presented by Indian
authorities as a necessary ‘evil’ to stop those Bangladeshis trying to ‘infiltrate’
into India. Now we know better!

As I have noted several
times, secular India has a very unsecular and unsavory record on protecting
minority groups. Riots and mayhems are more like norms in this largest
democracy - most often initiated and/or promoted by Hindu fanatics of RSS,
Vishwa Hindu Parishad - that are parents of BJP - the party that ruled India
and will probably come to power again in 2014. Muzaffarnagar last year saw her
worst violence in which nearly four dozen Muslims were killed. Thousands of
Muslims are afraid to return to their village. More than 100 riots happened in
the Uttar Pradesh in just a year. A fact-finding mission found the hands of BJP
everywhere. Its leaders have been active in organizing the panchayats and the
mahapanchayats in the villages where hate speeches pushed the crowd to take
revenge against the Muslims. Slogans against Muslims for killing cows mixed
with slogans in support of Narendra Modi rent the air after the series of
meetings and mahapanchayats in the villages.

In 2012 more than fifty
Muslims were killed in Assam, which borders Bangladesh. The election time is
usually a prime time to trigger such riots against Muslims who are used as vote
banks by politicians.

If the Indian
politicians fail to educate their electorates about Indian influx into
Bangladesh and the remittance thereof the Bangladeshi politicians and the
government owe it to their people to share the news. Probably the truth on this
matter will lower the propensity of politically motivated anti-Muslim religious
riots inside India.

==

(Note: This is a revised version, 2/22/2014)
=======================================

According
to the latest edition of the World Bank's Migration and Development Brief,
officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries grew by 5.3% to
reach an estimated $401 billion in 2012.

Remittances to developing countries are expected to grow by an annual average
of 8.8% for the next three years and are forecast to reach $515 billion in
2015, it added.

"Migration and remittances offer a vital lifeline for millions of people
and can play a major role in an economy's take-off. They enable people to
partake in the global labour market and create resources that can be leveraged
for development and growth.

"But they are also a source of political contention, and for that very
reason deserving of dispassionate analysis," said Kaushik Basu, the World
Bank's Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics.

Officially recorded remittance flows to South Asia are estimated to have
increased sharply by 12.8% to $109 billion in 2012, the World Bank report said.

This follows growth averaging 13.

8% in each of the previous two years, it added.

As a percentage of GDP,
the top recipients of remittances, in 2011, were Tajikistan (47%), Liberia
(31%), Kyrgyz Republic (29%), Lesotho (27%), Moldova (23%), Nepal (22%), and
Samoa (21%), the report said.

Remittance flows to developing countries have more than quadrupled since 2000.

Global remittances, including those to high-income countries, are estimated to
have reached $514 billion in 2012, compared to $132 billion in 2000, the report
added.

In addition to large numbers of unskilled migrants working mainly in the oil-rich
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, India also has a large skilled
diaspora the US and other high-income countries, the World Bank report said.

Flows to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal have also been robust, helped by strong
economic growth in the GCC and India.

Remittances to the region are projected to remain buoyant in the coming years,
reaching USD 140 billion in 2015, the report said.

The World Bank had on Friday announced the establishment of the Global
Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD), envisioned to
become a global hub of knowledge and policy expertise on migration issues.

KNOMAD was initiated in response to the rapid growth in migration and
remittances over the last decade.

Nearly one billion people - that is, one out of every seven persons on the
planet -- have migrated internally and across international borders in search
of better opportunities and living conditions, with profound implications for
development.

"The role of remittances in helping lift people out of poverty has always
been known, but there is also abundant evidence that migration and remittances
are helping countries achieve progress towards other Millennium Development
Goals, such as access to education, safe water, sanitation and healthcare,"
said Hans Timmer, Director of the Bank's Development Prospects Group.

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